Category Archives: DIY

So much of our outside beauty relies on what we put inside it. When the work week is over and we’re jacked that the weekend’s come, we often forget to maintain our healthy lifestyle choices. Binging on cocktails and fried foods over the weekend can leave our skin looking lack-lustre and less than flawless.

To boost your outer beauty, I’ve designed a few tasty and effective beverages that will kick your skin back into shape.

Green

There’s nothing better for your skin than giving yourself a little green cleanse. This blended recipe will give you nearly 50% of your daily Vitamin A and C intake, which will stimulate cellular turnover to give you brighter looking skin.

Bring your water to a boil then add the remaining ingredients. If you don’t need the sweetness of Stevia just omit this from your recipe.

This warm beverage will not only stimulate your senses and wake you up, but will soothe skin inflammation. This is especially great for those suffering from acne because the ingredients listed help rid your body of acne-causing toxins.

Each of these beauty beverages is simple to make and relatively cheap. A much healthier alternative to sugar filled cocktails and hangovers; promise!

About Sabrina:Sabrina is a lover of spontaneous adventure, surfing the net and of course, all things skincare and beauty. To green her skincare routine she likes to come up with cheeky and cheap DIY’s like How to Tighten Pores Naturally

Gluten seems to be a pretty popular topic these days. More and more people seem to be diagnosed as Celiacs or suffer from a severe allergy to it.

A silent killer in so many of your skin care products, you’d be reckless not to start reading your ingredient lists just a little more thoroughly.

Got Gluten?

For those of you who aren’t sure of what gluten really is, follow along.

Gluten is a protein found in any product contain barley, rye, wheat and more often than not, oats. Though this list is only 4 items long, you can see the issue.

Many of your favourite foods and drinks contain at least one of these ingredients and you’d be surprised how many skincare and beauty products do as well.

Those of us who are diagnosed with Celiacs Disease or suffering from sever intolerances are affected because our body is rejecting the protein. As a result, small intestinal villi are damaged and nutritional absorption is affected. Long story short, your body is attacking the very thing that is trying to nourish you.

To undo damage caused to your villi and live a healthy, happy life all you have to do is live by a strict g-free diet and lifestyle. It’s easier than it sounds, promise!

G-Free Your Skincare

To maintain glowing gorgeous skin, try swapping out your usual products for one of these recipes:

Moisturizer

So simple to make and so rich and creamy. This blend will rival any of your favourite products; I’m certain of it.

Step 1:Melt your butter oils and beeswax over low heat. Once liquified, remove from heat and set aside.

Step 2: Place your zinc oxide and glycerin in a blender and mix on high for 30 seconds.

Step 3: Remove the middle portion of your blender lid and slowly add in your oils and butter blend, one scoop at a time. Once it is all added let it blend on high for 5 minutes or until it becomes the creamy consistency you desire.

Step 4: Slather it on your skin!

Cleanser

Great for your face and your body. This next recipe will gently exfoliate your skin and cleanse it. It’s so good it even removes waterproof makeup!

Gather together:

– 1 cup Coconut Oil
– ¼ cup Grapeseed Oil
– 1 cup Raw Sugar

Step 1: Blend together your oils.

Step 2: Add in your sugar and stir thoroughly.

Step 3: If you want to use this as a body wash, double the recipe, otherwise gently massage this cleanser into your face and rinse off with lukewarm water.

Toner

I love a good toner for when I’m on the go and this is no exception. To promote clear skin, tighten pores and remain blemish free all you will need is:

Step 2: Pulverize the mint leaves to extract their natural oils. Do so with a muddler.

Step 3:Pour your toner into a travel-sized spray bottle so you can carry it with you at all times.

Tip: I like to remove the crushed mint stems so the toner doesn’t go off. You can use a micro-strainer to do this if you’ve pulverized them nice and good!

Hope you enjoy these g-free skin care products. They are budget friendly and a great opportunity for you to take your first step into a gluten-free lifestyle.

About Sabrina: Sabrina is a lover of spontaneous adventure, surfing the net and of course, all things skincare and beauty. To green her skincare routine she likes to come up with cheeky and cheap DIY’s like How to Tighten Pores Naturally

Over the next few weeks, I want you to extend a warm welcome to Sabrina, our guest blogger who will be presenting series on DIY Skincare Ideas! I think some of the best products are often times the ones made from ingredients we’ve already got in our cupboards. Read on, roll up your sleeves, and get ready for some hands on, au naturel goodness!

Benefits of Tea Tree Oil for Acne

As a beauty and skincare blogger, I read A LOT of articles and posts on anything and everything to do with skin, beauty and their related products. Even if you don’t read as much as me, you’d have to live under a rock to not hear about tea tree oil and it’s many benefits.

I have been using tea tree oils for years, but it seems like the general public is just getting the memo on how awesome it is. From curing ailments to preventing acne, this simple oil is handy to have hanging around. Before I get into the good stuff, let me tell you a little bit more about this wonder oil.

Let’s Talk Tea Tree Oil

Tea tree oil is derived from the leaves of Australia’s tea trees. Most commonly applied topically, it is a potent antifungal that is often used to cure fungal infections of the nail, athlete’s foot, acne and lice. It is also a great natural antiseptic making it perfect for use on cuts, abrasions, burns, bug bites, mouth and nose infections and several other minor infections.

Rather than focus on all that this oil can do, I’m going to focus on one area of its expertise; fighting acne. Regardless of how mild or severe your acne may be, the next 3 treatments will be beneficial and effective.

A Simple Spot Treatment

If you’re rushed for time but need to deal with a simple pimple pop up, this spot treatment is perfect for you.

All you need is two easy to find ingredients; tea tree oil and aloe vera gel. Mix together 1 teaspoon of tea tree oil with 9 teaspoons of aloe vera gel in a small dish. I like to put my mixture in travel size containers for quick and easy future use.

Once both ingredients are blended together nicely, use a clean finger and apply a bit of your treatment to the affected area. Feel free to leave this overnight, or like I said make it a quick spot treatment and leave it on for 15-20 minutes. It is safe and gentle enough to repeat as needed until your blemishes begin to vanish.

Though you can use straight tea tree oil on your skin I do not recommend doing so for a prolonged period of time as it has been known to cause irritation.

Acne-Fighting Astringent

Similar to my spot treatment, but meant for an all-over cleanse, mix 1 part tea tree oil to 9 parts water. You can put it in a spray bottle or a squeeze bottle; it just depends on your method of use. I like to use a spray bottle and mist myself but you can also sweep it across your face with a cotton pad.

Your face will feel refreshed, clean and invigorated within seconds of using. Impurities will be removed, pores will be rid of bacteria and dirt and inflammation will be diminished. Regular use will not only banish your current blemishes, but will prevent future pimples from popping up!

The Perfect Pimple Preventing Face Mask

If you’re looking to really get rid of your acne then you definitely want to give this face mask a try.

To make this mask you will need 2 tablespoons of green clay powder, 3-4 drops of tea treeoil and enough water to make your clay a paste.

Stir all your ingredients together in a bowl until they are nice and smooth. Use your fingers to apply your mask but be sure to steer clear of your eyes. If you get some in your eyes immediately rinse them out with cool water.

Your mask needs about 20 minutes to absorb and during this time it will become dry. Just be patient! Once the 20 minutes has passed rinse it off with lukewarm water and pat your face dry.

You can use this for a spot treatment as well as an all-over face mask so feel free to double up the recipe and store in a cool, dry place for future use.

In as little as a week you should see amazing results and all because you added tea tree oil to your beauty regime. You’ll look great, feel great and smell great! Enjoy!

About Sabrina: Sabrina is a lover of spontaneous adventure, surfing the net and of course, all things skincare and beauty. To green her skincare routine she likes to come up with cheeky and cheap DIY’s like How to Tighten Pores Naturally

Found a recipe for “one ingredient ice cream” on Pinterest the other day and in my spirit of ACTUALLY doing things that I pin, I gave this one a whirl and OMG I have made it at least three times in the past week since first trying it! Yes, as the title says, its actually HEALTHY! How? There’s no dairy, no added sugar, just fruit and almond butter. Seeing as almond (or peanut) butter and banana sandwiches are one of my most favorite things to eat in the world, this variation on that theme is the perfect snack or dessert when trying to find something good for ya to nibble on! Everyone who has tried it has asked me in disbelief “wait, there’s only BANANAS and ALMOND BUTTER in this!?”

Indeed kiddos, indeed. And it takes about 5 minutes to actually make! The key is to peel and cut the bananas before you freeze them and pulse the blender rather than just letting it go. Without further ado: the recipe! Enjoy and happy healthy ice cream eating this weekend, y’all!!

Typically the way my shoe shopping goes is that I either strike out when sizes don’t go above a 10 or when they do, they’re too narrow to fit my wide foot. I used to made myself suffer, by trying to squeeze my foot in too-narrow shoes which always results in this awful podiatric muffin top. It’s wildly unattractive.

If I’m lucky shoes can be professionally stretched to fit, but that’s generally not the case so I’m usually S.O.L. That is, until I heard about an at-home stretching method to make shoes wider! The famed shoe expert, Megan Cleary, suggested that to stretch shoes made out of man made materials all you had to do was pop ‘em in the oven for half an hour at 200 degrees! Whatta tip! This could be a lifechanger for me and my 11W’s!! I didn’t have any ill fitting shoes at the time, but I set on a quest to find them.

The answer came in a pair of fun, summery platforms from Target that I nabbed for about 25 buckaroos.

The were cute, so I wanted to wear them.
They were made of man-made materias, so I could experiment on them.
They were cheap, so I wouldn’t feel bad about ruining them.

And most importantly, they gave me that icky muffin topped foot. Game on.

So one Sunday morning when my roommates were gone and I was feeling particularly brazen about potentially burning down the house, I heated the oven to 200 degrees and slid the shoes right on in.

I would say that I waited patiently for 30 minutes until they were done baking, but let’s be real–they’re shoes! They’re never done baking because they shouldn’t be baking in the first place! I kept checking on them every 3 minutes making sure there was no rubber melting or buckles bursting into flames. Finally after a grueling half hour, I put the shoes on my feet and wore them until they were cool. I would have walked around in them more, but the rubber of the platforms had become so soft that it felt like I was walking on a moon bounce so I stayed put, not chancing turning my platforms into flatforms. Then I kept wearing them and we were strutted around town and lived happily ever after. The end.

Ha. I wish.

You’re probably wondering if this whole adventure in shoe stretching actually worked. One word: nope! But it sure is a fun story to tell, isn’t it! Oh the things I do for my feetsies. The quest for cute and affordable wide widths continues…tally ho!